In our experience, we’ve discovered that we usually have to ease our clients into the realities of organic web marketing. They can get behind the groundwork of SEO easily enough; user experience and integrating the right keywords: these are not totally alien concepts to anyone who’s been around the marketing scene for more than three seconds.
But when we get into the truth of how much time and effort goes into the actual work of raising their web visibility--that it’s an ongoing process that will require them to generate content and build relationships--we often see some reluctance.
To combat that reluctance, we’ve put a lot of thought into how we conduct and explain our particular version of content marketing.
Defining our Terms
Before we get into that, a quick note about said version of content marketing. In general, we understand that content marketing is usually considered different from social media marketing. Content marketing is about drawing attention to the content on your website; social media marketing is about encouraging engagement on the various social media forums out there in cyberspace.
When we work with clients on their web marketing, we tend to blur that line between content and social media marketing. Every strategy we develop includes both. Valuable content--blog posts, infographics, videos, whatever content type aligns with the client’s goals--forms the foundation of any web marketing effort. Once we’ve got the value, we utilize social media to get the word out, engage, build relationships, and ultimately brand awareness. See the blurring?
To us, the label matters less than having a deliberate and intentional strategy to provide something of value on an ongoing basis, because content and social media marketing ultimately work together to build:
- Value in your company or organization (or on behalf of your client)
- A personality and brand that people know and trust
- Sustainable relationships
- A supportive online community
- Domain authority and desired rankings
The Solution
So, when our clients consistently had a tough time grasping what it takes to raise their visibility on the web, we decided that something had to be done.
To that end we’ve developed an approach that clearly explains and delineates the process, step-by-step. It spells out who does what and when and how and just, in general, makes the whole thing both more manageable and more palatable to our hesitant clients.
We always start out by explaining that our organic web marketing process includes three stages:
-
Stage One
SEO & Local Search (research & implementation) -
Stage Two
Link Building & Social Media Strategies (research & development) -
Stage Three
Ongoing Implementation & Measurement (which never, ever ends)
This graphic depicts Stages Two and Three. It is the process that we use to develop and implement content and social media marketing strategies for our clients:
By the time we get to this part of our (almost painfully) well-defined process, two things have come to pass:
[1] Stage One Has Been Completed
Way back at the beginning of Stage One, the clients completed a data collection questionnaire that provides us with a general understanding of the following:
- design preferences & assets
- logins (website, analytics, social)
- competition (top 3)
- target audience (and level of expertise)
- website (most important pages, most significant tasks)
- calendar (highs and lows, significant events, holidays, roadblocks)
- team (point of contact)
- marketing efforts (print, social, SEO, email marketing)
- goals & expectations (SEO, social media)
We have reviewed these findings and worked through all of the necessary website and SEO efforts that are part of Stage One of the project (site audit, navigation development, user experience, keyword research, on-page optimization, local search integration, etc.).
Stage One lays the groundwork so that the website is optimized and ready for all the targeted traffic we’re going to generate. We’ve also discovered the keywords that we will be integrating into both their link building and content/social media marketing strategy so that we are building links to the right pages on the website once we get to Stage Three.
[2] We Have Defined & Aligned Everyone’s Expectations & Responsibilities
Every client has different budgets and expectations of participation. Some clients have a large internal team that can dedicate the time to ongoing content generation and strategy implementation. Other clients really need to lean on our knowledge, expertise, and resources, so at that level we act as their third party web marketing team and carry most of the load for them.
No matter what level we are working with a client, we always make it very clear what it takes to achieve desired results and who will be held accountable for achieving these results. If a client asks us to assist them with research, analysis, and strategy development, but they want their internal team to do the ongoing implementation, we cannot be held accountable if our recommendations are not carried through. It’s really important to establish these guidelines with a client even before you go under contract. It will certainly make for a more successful and long lasting consulting partnership.
All that being said, here’s how content marketing and the social process breaks down:
Step One: Analyze & Observe
In this first step of the process, you’ve got to get a really strong understanding of the the social climate. Analyze what the client is currently doing (or not doing) with their social on their website, blog, and print marketing efforts. Do the same for their competitors. Get a solid understanding of what is going on in their industry, focusing on the social space.
Your goal with this analysis is to put together a list of general observations: what are the common threads between the client and their competitors? What could be done better? Note the gaps in content and where gains can be made. We record these observations on a chart so that we can integrate them into the analysis and recommendations that we provide the client. These observations will also be very helpful when you begin developing the strategy and calendar in Step Three below.
Step Two: Build Your Online Community
In Step Two, you will be establishing the foundation for the online community. At this point, the goal is simply to get acclimated to the social spaces where the client will be following, reading, engaging, and at some point, providing valuable content.
So, based on what you discovered from the data collection findings about the target audience(s), current efforts, and goals, which social media outlets seem like a match?
Let’s say you’re going to recommend Twitter and Google+ as targets in their content marketing and social strategy. Find the thought leaders in their industry on Twitter and Google+ and follow/circle them. Read the content they’re passing around, engage with them where appropriate, add the people that they are following to your list. Start to get a feel for how the online community operates (posting frequency, content type, tone, etc.) and get acclimated. Take it slow.
Reminding clients that social media is a tool and not a strategy helps them to understand that it’s important to have a plan in place. It’s not about being on every social media outlet. It’s about being on the right social media outlets and customizing the content to the target audience. This will ultimately build the best online community and bring your client desired results.
Developing an online community is an important and ongoing process that is worth a great deal of dedicated time and effort. This community is going to help you carry the load. If the community trusts and values you, they will help to do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting the word out (marketing your content). More on this in Step Five.
Step Three: Develop Your Strategy & Calendar
As mentioned, at the beginning of a project, we ask our clients to define their goals and expectations. This allows them to communicate their desires, and it gives us an understanding of whether their expectations are realistic.
If there are any red flags (i.e. wants a too-quick turn-around: 15,000 followers in six months with no budget to fund large campaigns), then certainly we address any concerns at the beginning of the project.
Before we begin developing the strategy and calendar, we outline a list of realistic goals and how we are going to work toward them. Again, we integrate this chart into the analysis and recommendations that we provide the client so that they have an understanding of what we are going to be accountable for.
These goals and action items are just the precursor to their strategy. The analysis and recommendations that we provide the client includes a very detailed, step-by-step breakdown of their strategy (all the stuff we’re going to help them do or do for them).
As you’ve probably guessed, every strategy we develop includes content generation on an on-going basis. But we also include targeted strategies and ideas for whatever is necessary to meet their unique goals, things like apps, contests, events.
Our strategies are detailed and very specific. We provide step-by-step instructions for every campaign (i.e. what to do prior to the contest to ramp up, what to do during the contest, what to do after the contest), so that the strategy can be easily followed by the client’s internal team (in case we’re not handling the implementation). And, hey, if their budget allows us to do the work, then these details make it easy for our team to execute.
The narrative of the social strategy is also accompanied by a digital calendar that includes all actions to be taken and who is responsible for completing them. We make sure the calendar allows plenty of time for first-draft content reviews and revisions prior to launch/implementation.
Our clients prefer that we provide some guidance, so each of these calendar items includes a brief description of the task. If you click on one of the calendar items, there is some detail so that whoever the task is assigned to, they know exactly what is expected of them. Because the calendar is digital and everyone on the team has access, when we make changes to their schedule or strategy, everyone is alerted.
When you’re developing the content and social media marketing strategy, make sure that you are aligning all efforts (SEO, link building, social media, email marketing, etc.). Everything, from print to web, should be integrated and leveraged. You can then determine which tools and methods you will use for measurement (we love Raven, SEOmoz, Google Analytics, and Sprout Social) so that you can show the client the progress that is being made.
Step Four: Create the Value
Once the strategy is ready, it’s time to create the content. Clearly this is an ongoing effort, but having a strategy to follow will ensure that content is being generated on a regular basis and that it is working towards meeting the goals that have been outlined. It will also keep everyone involved organized and focused so that you’re not heading towards burn out.
On a side note: we like to encourage clients to integrate links to other valuable content (articles, video, infographics, etc) in their posts. This helps to provide a more engaging user experience and it also gives the opportunity for link and egobait. You can always publish a post and alert the author that you liked one of their articles and mentioned it in your post.
Step Five: Get the Word Out
The content has been created, so now comes the fun part. When getting the word out, you have two main goals:
First, provide something of value.
Second, be authentic (and make sure that you’re consistent with voice).
Every social media outlet is different and your approach should reflect that. Don’t use the same teaser for Facebook as you use on Twitter. Not only are the formats of these outlets different, but so are the audiences, their behaviors, and their expectations. Take the time to customize your messages and you’ll get better results. You can then measure and analyze these efforts in Step Seven and determine if you need to try a different day of the week, time of day, reduce/increase frequency, or a whole different approach altogether.
Step Six: Monitor & Engage
Once the content is out, you will want to be hands on, so get ready to monitor and engage. If you’re not getting bites on your content (re-tweets, mentions, etc.) try some direct engagement. Tweet, use other social outlets, or even email people directly to encourage some action.
As we’ve said, depending on budget, we may do some or all of this work for the client. We always define specific tasks that the client is responsible for and specific tasks that we are responsible for (and they are always noted on the calendar). Joint tasks usually include things like daily review of the online community and social media outlets, as well as responding and engaging.
Even if we are not engaging on behalf of the client, we are always monitoring the client’s efforts. This provides the client with useful feedback that will help them to learn, improve, and ultimately be successful. Certainly we are always monitoring data, and we provide a series of reports analyzing and explaining their metrics in the next step, Measure & Analyze, below.
Step Seven: Measure & Analyze
Accountability is really important, especially because clients will always be concerned with ROI which can be difficult to quantify with content and social media marketing.
We continually communicate with the client and provide bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports that all serve specific purposes.
The bi-weekly report is meant for a quick look. It’s a short, 1-2 page report that we email to the client that includes a ‘Way to Go’ section (things they’re doing well), a ‘Some Reminders’ section (things they need to remember to do to keep them aligned with the strategy), a ‘Benchmark’ (current state of social efforts), and a ‘Looking Forward’ section (actions required). It’s a quick accountability report that provides the client with an understanding of what we’ve been working on (and perhaps what they need to be working on).
The monthly report is the month at a glance, including significant social media activity (increase in following, furthering reach, etc.), trends we’re seeing, and other things to look out for (there may be some link building or SEO items to point out here). We include screen shots from both Sprout Social and Raven, as well as any screenshots of analytics specific to the social media outlet (i.e. Facebook).
The quarterly report is the most in-depth as it includes a look at the global picture. This report illustrates the progress of everything we are working on for the client: SEO, link building, content marketing, and social media. Clearly we are monitoring, analyzing, and taking action on these pieces throughout the quarter, but this reporting session is meant to really dig in, analyze the data over a longer period of time, and make the necessary improvements in all areas (SEO, link building, and social media). This meeting is always a sit down, face-to-face (if possible) with the client. We may make changes to the strategy in this meeting or address new work that the client would like us to take care of.
Step Eight: Rinse & Repeat
Once you’ve completed this process, you can start over with a new idea, a new goal, and a new strategy. Follow the same steps and customize the process for the work you do with your clients.
Along the way, don’t forget to celebrate the little victories. We get really excited about getting re-tweets, targeted links, and engaging with thought leaders. We teach our clients to bask in the excitement of even the smallest accomplishment. It helps them to understand how hard we work for them (with them) every day.
Savvy?
So, that’s how we do it. For now, anyway. We are continually working on shaping our systems and processes so that we can provide our clients with the most value (and get them desired results). You can certainly use this process as a guideline, but keep in mind that every client and project is going to be unique and will require customization at some level. And, of course, as content and social media marketing evolves, this process will require adjustment.
We’ve discovered that spelling things out, dissecting and cataloguing the entire process, severely reduces the terror that our clients experience in the face of the alien world of content marketing (just like Area 51 does it). And it makes sure everything runs smoothly for us as we implement as well.
So, how about you? How do you convince your more timid clients to commit to the real deal? And, since we are always striving for improvement, we’d welcome your thoughts on how we do it, too.
Great article, however what do you do in a case of an boring niche as far as social media? What if you cannot find anybody talking about your topic on any social network?
Not every topic is discussed on social media enough to build a good list of followers, for bootstrap problems, I've found it helpful to follow persons with not many friends yourself after you have just started on Twitter. Because these people actualy notice that you've added them and will react on that.
Thanks SEODinosaur. We have found that in any industry there can be creative ways to utilize the power of social media if the company is willing to do the work (i.e. generate valuable content: blog posts, infographics, video, etc). Maybe no one is talking about this niche on social media because no one's creating anything worth talking about (translation=huge opportunity).
We often have clients who say that they don't know where their target audience is on social media and that there are no thought leaders in their industry. That creates a perfect opportunity for this process to come into play.
You've got to do some digging and figure out where the online community is. This should reveal which social media outlets are the ideal target. Maybe that's starting with related industries (i.e. if the company is in retail, look to fashion photographers and bloggers). It goes beyond just building relationships with the people who will buy their stuff. Their online community needs to be a mix between current and potential customers, the industry experts, and whomever else their brand may touch.
Because it can take a lot of time and effort to build an online community and effectively use social media and content marketing, there is no better time to start than the present...especially if there are no thought leaders or good content. Get in there and be the first one.
All the companies that I have optimized sites for have been boring niche related, Somehow, I am able to get results with writing good quality articles that can somehow tie into a trend. For example I wrote articles on Haiti's poor construction after the earthquake and tied in steel buildings, this worked great. However, getting an article to go viral for "Property Management" on social networks is not easy and if no one is taking about it, how can one find a good social area to even start.
If no one is talking about it, it is uncharted water. However maybe no one wants to talk about it.
Some topics have related industries, things to talk about. But some do not or at least I cannot think of any. "You've got to do some digging and figure out where the online community is" Find me the online community for "Property management" and I will be wowed. Also I am not talking about vacation related property management, lets say "residential property management."
There may not be an online community for residential property management for your specific client just yet. That's what you have to build. This should be part of your strategy and you can use quality content to do that.
The digging I'm referring to in finding the online community has to do with competitor research and analysis. You can also look for lendors, borrowers, universities, real estate, maintenance companies, etc.
This is just a start, but there is a great deal of potential there for developing that community and content that would make them happy.
I do a few boring niches and I find a good thing to create is free tools or games for people to use.
when you are in a boring niches what in most cases works is to do something stupid, perhaps remember that your clients always have questions and needs that you can fill using an infography or with a Q& A sections, something like ask to John guru of the boring niches.
SeoDinosaur, I had a very similar case to yours. The company was an "Investment Group" and after rolling my eyes, all the other things we do, I cut through all the b.s. and all the stuff I read/have read and I got creative. Like most SEO masters, I wanted to "Spin" what wasn't there, and create something exciting from the non exciting reality, and you can't make chocolate milk from rocks.
These two guys were actually House Flippers, and one was the slick talking front man, and the other guy was the Remodeler/General Contractor Type in Downtown Seattle. Still boring. Nothing there. But that is when it came to me. We have to be the one to come up with sheer genius and brilliance on the fly, make the decision, and move on.
So I changed the Profiles to Read thus: "Two Devilishly Handsome Guys who Tweet and Post About News, Events, Music, and Entertainment in Downtown Seattle"
Within 2 hours, they had been invited to a Downtown Ladies Group with 300 Female Executives to their Bi Weekly Seattle Luncheon!!! They had more prospects and contacts than their calender could find room for an entire quarter from that one event, and I had only started!!
You can take away from that story whatever you want. Maybe it's that SEO people first and foremost are marketers/advertising people. Or that we have to think out of the box? Or we have to be gorilla marketers first, and sometimes quit spinning content against the stream? Or that you sometimes have to think of the ultimate results, and not milking the client for more months worth of revenue, and make them some money fast. You can take away alot from that case study.
I personally wrote a blog post, and have my satisfaction that it all worked out, and worked fast. That to me is the most important thing.
I Tweet at @ProNetworkBuild
Nice success story there, ProNetworkBuild!
I know that it is totally possible to find creative and engaging social media solutions for "boring" niche markets, because I've witnessed the potential. One of my favourite examples is of a goat farm called Big Picture Farm, which I found through an incredible blog account that showcased life on a goat farm through beautiful photographs, poems, and videos. From there, I discovered that it was the company blog for this farm that sells goat caramels online.
It does take some ingenuity, but it is possible!
Cheers,
Sarah Bauer
Navigator Multimedia
SEODinosaur -
You answered your own question better than I could have-- do what you did for SEO! Engage on a topic that is peripheral to the "boring" topic. You did that with an article about an earthquake. Now use that and get it in front of the right people.
Have you tried real estate investor groups? Real estate investors in general? Even, R E agents who are looking to get out of selling and into managing? Just a thought!
I'm a bail bondsman, talk about an unpopular niche! I don't worry about being front and center all the time. Folks only want my presence in times of need, so I strive to be front and center on those occasions.
If anything it makes it easier. Users are pre-qualified but when they come looking you must have the content they are seeking. That content must be placed where they can find it as well, so even a limited social media presence can provide a useful trail of breadcrumbs to it.
A bunch of good points that I would love to reiterate here.
As @Everers pointed out social media's hard to use if your niche is boring, however one thing that I wanted to point out is that social media's only as fun as you want it to be. Make sure that you're retweeting and reaching out to others in your field. If you're a wheelchair provider reach out to others who deal with your demographic, talk to senior centers and disabled groups on social media. The ROI on social media does not have to be the same for everyone, some times it can lead to a link for SEO but in other times it can just be to make friends or even possibly leads for your field. You just have to qualify yourself and ask yourself, what exactly is your goal when you're entering it. Even if you're an ad company it might be of interest to pursue other ad companies and learn from them, and see what they're doing.
Even a few tweets a day and some originality can lead to what @Jeff Downer called the "breadcrumb" affect. They might not exactly be looking for you but if you send a few tweets and make a few friends in the field, eventually your prime audience will find you if you use the tool(social media app) correctly.
Hi SEODinosaur,
This is like the salesman story:
Two salesman went to Africa one of them comes back and says: there is no opportunity in Africa because "nobody is wearing shoes". The second salesman comes back and says there is a huge opportunity in Africa "nobody is wearing shoes".
It's just a mater of how you see things, if there is no authority in the industry, Hurray be the first one.
Cornel
Hey Mack -
Good stuff here! I get nervous when I see talk about a process, but yours is both broad enough to get everyone and specific enough to be actionable. Really great job, and congrats on your first YOUmoz post!
Thanks so much John! I put a lot of effort into this post so that it could possibly be used by other agencies. This process has really helped our business and it has brought our clients a lot of success.
Another excellent article, so much so I've printed out the process and stuck it up in the middle of the office for the commercial and marketing teams to be inspired by.
I tend to agree Steven. This is a great starting point and clearly describes the process from a high-level. I'd recommend this as reading for any marketing team and any business jumping into the inbound marketing game.
Well done Mackenzie!
Great to hear Steven. Thanks!
Hey Mackenzie Fogelson, you write such a great article on content management and social media. ultimately you shows the difference between in both activities. otherwise after penguine update some of people says that content and social media is the same part of the SEO. but you manage the difference of between both.
Thanks Robert. I'm glad that you've found it useful.
Your most welcome, Mackenzie Fogelson i also glad to interact with you.
Hey Mackenzie,
Great strategy, a strategy I will be adding to ours for sure.
Not many posts like yours on the internet giving a detailed step by step programme that shows you actually know what you's are doing.
This has to be, for me, the best post I've seen on SEOMoz.
Thanks
Steven
Wow Steven, that means a lot. Thanks for the feedback.
I didn't think i'd follow through this entire article, due to it's length.But Wow, you really went down to nice details there.
Content marketing remains the most difficult nut to crack, depending much on how much viral it could actually get.
As everything in life, it's way easier said than done.
But I'm sure many of the readers will learn important pointers from this tutorial.
Thanks!
My pleasure Yoav.
Thanks for the post Mackenzie, your post really good like your smile.
I will definitely use those tips, keeping valuable content which also beneficial to the nature of business will bring the right effect of content marketing.
GREAT write up on the social media marketing! It's great to have a process for social media!
Thank You Mackenzie :)
Thanks Dubs! I'm overwhelmed by the positive support I've received from the community.
Very detailed post with great information. All the steps are essential when managing your social media presence online and looking for success. Step 4, Creating Value, is extremely important when Building your Community which is step 2. Without great content that people are interested in they won't "follow" or "like" you. It's tough to come up with content that will get followers and keep them engaged. You must find what works for your business, and that may take some time.
So true Amanda. None of this stuff happens overnight, but we've seen great results within just a few months. The best part about it is that the value you're creating goes way beyond what it does for your rankings. It really will change your company.
Wow Mackenzie,
This is really really useful, I will be working through this step by step cos it is so practical.
Thanks so much for a really awesome post.
Peter Mead
Thank you Mackenzie this is a great article. Social media is such a powerful tool if use properly.
Definitely a well written, thorough post! I really like that you have addressed the expectations and responsibility end of things. We have, at times, gotten into awkward conversations with our clients or web developers partners where we give advice and they insist on implementing it themselves to save money. When it doesn't happen, they look to us to say "What's going on. Why isn't it working?" when in reality none of the advice has been acted upon. (The cry of an SEO guy!!) The ONLY way we have been able to address and bypass that problem is with an up front, frank discussion. When a company hires an expert, you'd think they'd listen to what the pros have to say! Not always! Thank you for addressing this issue so both sides can be aware of it. In the end, we all truly want our customers to succeed and reach their targets.
You're so welcome. We used to agree to sell our services without implementation of the strategy (as you said, so that they can save money). But we got tired of no follow through and not being able to prove our expertise. So now we sell it as a complete package and ensure that the client understands the expectations of our process and what it takes to get results before we begin. This has really helped us to attract the clients who are right for us and who align with our values as a company.
Fantastic article Mackenzie... thank you so much for the hard work you put into this one.
I am just beginning to develop my offline client base and this will come in very handy I am sure...
Keep cranking out the great content.
Mark
Thanks Mark. Hope it turns out being useful for you!
Today social media becomes one of best and faster way of marketing and i am very happy to know about it and it's process as you described above in a simplify way.
Thanks great article
My pleasure Shashi. Glad you find it useful.
Hi Mackenzie,
I hope that your existing clients and new prospects alike appreciate the time and planning you provide to ensure their success.
Time and effort are the price of admission for remarkable content and a web site with a well thought out UX. And at the end of the day, content is king and a clean user experience is nipping at the king’s heels.
By doing such a great job of setting expectations and educating your prospects early on in the sales process, you are creating a ton of good will, trust, and credibility.
The blur you describe between content and social media marketing is what I call a “holistic approach” to inbound marketing. As you illustrate so well, to achieve long-term success and sustainability, you need to educate your clients and adjust their expectations accordingly so that they understand that they are committing to a blurred approach for the long haul.
In my experience, the biggest challenge that prospective clients face is “Step Four: Create the Value.” I just don’t think that most folks, (myself included), have done a very good job of really getting prospects to understand the dedication and hard work required to consistently publish blog articles, eBooks, guides, videos, etc…
One thing I’d like to emphasize in Step Two is how important developing your buyer personas is. If you understanding goals of your buyer personas, can anticipate their questions and provide solutions to their problems, then aligning your keyword strategy to the content and offers that would attract each persona will become that much easier.
Getting back to setting expectations and goals, “Step Seven: Measure & Analyze” is so critical to a long-term engagement. The key is delivering the proof, in the form of data and metrics, that easily supports the ROI of your hard work.
Below are some additional metrics that you can add to the goals section of your proposal:
Blogging
Social Media
SEO
Link Building
Conversions
Bravo Mackenzie! By holding your clients accountable, setting expectations, and providing measurable ROI metrics, you can definitely create loyal, raving clients who will appreciate the value you bring, and will want to partner with you for the long-haul.
It is the wonderful publish related to the public networking and material promotion. @Mackenzie Fogelson Exclusively thanks for you because you reveals here a good difference between public networking and material promotion.
Thanks for reading Robert!
Thanks to you Mackenzie Fogelson for sharing this information.......
My pleasure Deepti.
I do a few boring niches and I find a good thing to create is free tools or games for people to use. Get up to 95% off laptops, electronics, jewelry, and even cash at Zeekler Penny Auction with Our Diamond Preferred Customer Program at only $99/mo and 250 bids/mo worth $1 each https://goo.gl/KXJn3
Wow, one of the most complete articles about content and social media strategy. I really enjoy it. Interesting how you show the difference between social media and content marketing.
Thanks Daniel!
Thank you for the excellent review of your process. Getting a client to plan, organize, and measure is 90% or more of the battle, sometimes.
Mackenzie, thank you for taking the time to write this post.
What you have described is pretty much we way we go about our marketing (we are an in-house team), but you have presented it in a really systematic way.
I've been trying to find a simple way to lay out our process so that we can make it more of a formal plan - too much is spinning around in my head at the moment - and this is a huge help!
Very useful blogging here with nice presentation...
A great post Mackenzie. Your content and social media marketing infographic is at par with the System/Software Development Life Cycle process for the way its been beautifully laid out. Congratulations and excellent work.
Entire process is so lucid that I was easily able to relate situations under which these principles can be applied, while reading through the post. I completely agree that its most difficult to present value/ROI to client for an on-going activity like content marketing, social media process, etc. Thanks once again for sharing this with all.
Thanks Jay! Glad that you found it useful and applicable right out of the gate.
# 7 Measure & Analyze: This is what most of us do not seriously care for (I think), but rest of the process (mostly) remains same. Actually we write, post, share and respond, but to improve the quality we must follow this in a way as we post regularly.
Excellent post!
Thanks Alicka. Measuring and analyzing can be the best part if you're taking the time to understand the data and make educated decisions about it moving forward. It's also what gives you the ammunition to convince the client that all of the hard work you're putting in is in fact working, and that they should continue spending their budget with you.
I really agree with McKenzie on this one analytics are key using Google is fine but having backup tools like hotspot, kiss metrics and more when they see the conversion happening or why somebody stepping away from the purchase they realize the value almost immediately. I would say it is one of the best parts to for instance go to a site I use for hosting and love the guys but my reason for sending you is to see the A/B testing try https://wpengine.com then https://wpengine.com/b I just had to go through it 4 times to actually not get the https://wpengine.com/b/ page I was not the case 2 weeks ago it seems page b is a better seller. All the best, happy Fourth of July
Thomas
I have to agree with Mackenzie as well. Phil <3 Data
I have had problems explaining to clients the ongoing process myself! In which they eventually had me stop after achieving #1 rank (High Competitive Keyword). about 45 days later they had dropped back down to #3. They were puzzled, and I had to do the whole "I Told You So" explanation. Having a outlined step by step process would have greatly helped in this situation.
Excellent post, inspiration was gained.
Glad to hear it! Hope that it serves you well.
All while reading this excellent guide I was irritated thinking of how some, IMO, irresponsible SEOs with their $100/month promises to be on Page 1 of Google, etc, etc. that have bombarded small business owners over the years have created an urban legend definition of SEO.
It seems to me that it is widely believed among non-marketers that SEO is a bag of tricks and a one-size-fits all product that can be bulk-purchased. Because this misconception is so widely-held, clients have a very hard time accepting that successfully doing business online can take as much time, hard work, and money as doing business offline.
I see the industry moving to other buzzwords like "content marketing' and other more accurate terms, but I would like to see more of a push to redefine SEO in the mind of the general public. A small shift could make our jobs a little easier and save a lot of time.
I hear ya Chase. A majority of our time is definitely spent on educating the client about what SEO really means. We've developed a bunch of infographics to help tell the story which establishes credibility and also helps make the sale. We're certainly proud to be part of a community of agencies and SEOs that are out there dispelling SEO myths.
Might be stealing some of those infographics - thanks again for the write-up!
Thanks to you for giving me a some new Ideas on content and Social Media Marketing.
Mackenzie, nice info. i fully agree with you.
Just break some off page works and its time to start and promote content by using social media
Don't work very hardly, just do everything very smartly.
Nice article,thanks for the information.
woow!!!.. such a great article regarding social media marketing... thanks so much Mackenzie;
I wanted to know, presently I'm running with fundraising projects,also going through above ways.. but not getting that much of positive result. Can anyone have such ideas for successfully done!!
Thanks,
Manoj
Wowww this is the most complete Article I read on how to organize your SEO/PR efforts!
Finally a post which lays out the process in understandable words. Oftentimes, it's all in the agencies head, and the customer just needs to 'trust us'. Transparency truly is the key here :)
One final question though: since a customer could be on a shoestring budget, and doesn't have the time to do continuous content creation him/herself. How much hours per content piece and what writing frequency do you generally propose? A ballpark figure will do, because it's puzzling me for quite some time now...
Thanks again Mackenzie, bookmarked!!
Glad that you are finding it useful. With all of the efforts involved in content and social media marketing, on the smallest level, with our assistance, we tell the client to plan on a commitment of 17 hours a week. This includes monitoring and engaging in their online community, on social media, and generating content (at that level they create a post once a month and we match those same efforts).
There isn't really a time frame that I can give you for one post. It really depends on the target audience, the strategy and what the goal of the post is. Posts that are directed toward thought leaders take a great deal more time than one that is targeted toward a potential client that may not have a lot of knowledge in the industry.
If the client is on a shoestring budget, I'd help them with the strategy and then allow them to integrate. You may not get the results you're looking for, but at least you know you've put them on the right path.
I do really like this post. As John wrote, general enough to be adapted to anybody needs, but actionable enough to make it working since the beginning.
One thing seemed not completely explained though: the relation with the client, who is ultimately the one who must take care of things like Social Media. I saw how you crafted a calendar... but what about the constant need of being the "professor", inciting the client in doing what you have planned them to do?
Asking, because I'd like to know your experiences about how you admin this part of the consulting job.
Thanks for the kind words Gianluca. As for your question, we monitor the client's online community and social media efforts so that we are able to provide them with feedback. This ensures that they are "doing it right", aligning with the strategy that we have recommended, and that there aren't any opportunities being missed. Because we are constantly communicating with the client (we report bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly), we are able to make them aware of things they maybe should avoid doing, or things that they could be doing better.
Our approach is a collaborative effort with companies. Our agreements are very specific about what we are doing and what the client is doing so that we can help them achieve desired results. Depending on their budget, we carry some or most of the load. But even at the highest level of involvement, we make sure that the client keeps their head in the game.
Let me know if that helps to clarify. I'm happy to provide additional detail.
McKenzie outstanding post,
You nailed it hook line and sinker. I think you did a fantastic job of illustrating not only your info-graph but your point as well. I am going to quote you if that's all right this section below I cannot agree with you more and to get a client to truly understand the time and effort you put in to get them a page one ranking (we just ended things with a vodka company that doesn't have the budget and wanted to rank in the top 3 in 2 months something we explained in the beginning was impossible)
"In our experience, we’ve discovered that we usually have to ease our clients into the realities of organic web marketing. They can get behind the groundwork of SEO easily enough; user experience and integrating the right keywords: these are not totally alien concepts to anyone who’s been around the marketing scene for more than three seconds.
But when we get into the truth of how much time and effort goes into the actual work of raising their web visibility--that it’s an ongoing process that will require them to generate content and build relationships--we often see some reluctance."
You illustrate it sold so well right here to thank you very much I'm going to give this to my employees and I can't thank you enough this is perfect.
"As mentioned, at the beginning of a project, we ask our clients to define their goals and expectations. This allows them to communicate their desires, and it gives us an understanding of whether their expectations are realistic.
If there are any red flags (i.e. wants a too-quick turn-around: 15,000 followers in six months with no budget to fund large campaigns), then certainly we address any concerns at the beginning of the project."
As you said I see these red flags constantly go up it is truly hard to turn down business however my policy is never to lie to them ever if they tell me what I was told the other day. "I just bought this new domain" they wanted to rank 1st page one or two for words I can't disclosed but there extremely competitive well the client thinks easy obviously well than they must get used to the sandbox for bit but not that we can't help them we are having to educate them give them time to think then trust that the client will trust us through the six-month period it is unbelievably frustrating for a client to leave right after you spent tons of time money getting them optimized, on good hosting, website developed only to be told after only 2 months of work "I can see this increasing traffic but no real ROI" then they think that you are their IT guys well. One thing my grandfather taught me and it may not apply completely in this but with how to contract I think it applies. " Never argue with any one you have to educate first" I would go as far as signed with a client you have to educate 25 times first unless they get it finally. Not as much a ring but outstanding post.
Happy Fourth of July!
Respectfully,
Thomas von Zickell
Blueprint Marketing
Thanks for your detailed feedback Thomas. I was reading a post by James Agate (https://skyrocketseo.co.uk/common-client-conflicts-when-building-links-and-how-to-deal-with-them/) the other day that talks about how important it is to educate clients instead of being put off by their ignorance. It's our job to dispel common SEO myths and help clients understand the real work involved with organic web marketing. If you are communicating properly and you are true to your values as a company, then you will know when a client is not a fit. The challenge is making sure you're listening to those signals.
No doubt Social Media Marketing has emerged as one of the most important tools in the arsenal of Internet Marketers and I am in agreement when you said Social Media and Content Writing are inseparable. I too see Content and Social Media as an one and holistic approach rather than looking them in an isolated manner. Internet Marketing works most when various campaigns are undertaken simultaneously and con-currently. And I would like to thank you for sharing us the reporting system that we need to follow while replying clients back. Many of us were struggling hard to portray exactly what we are doing for clients and you resolved much of our concerns with your Bi-weekly, monthly and Quarterly approach.
My pleasure Andrew. Glad you've found it useful.